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Sexual Violence

Sexual Violence

Legal Momentum's Senior Vice President and Director of the National Judicial Education Program, Lynn Hecht Schafran, and Vice President for Government Relations, Lisalyn Jacobs, worked together with a small group of organizations to meet with the Department of Justice’s Special Litigation Section to urge them to issue a Guidance on Gender-Biased Policing. This is the group's formal request letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which was circulated to organizations across the country requesting them to sign on.

This interview with National Judicial Education Program Project Attorney Claudia Bayliff discusses the language that is used to describe sexual violence, the importance of language choices, and how language shapes perceptions. Ms. Bayliff frequently presents on this topic to multidisciplinary audiences around the country. The program is also available as an online curriculum, Raped or “Seduced?” How Language Helps Shape Our Perceptions of Sexual Violence.

Some victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking need to leave their jobs because of the violence in their lives. Others are discharged from their jobs because of the violence. In most states, individuals are ineligible for unemployment benefits if they leave work voluntarily without “good cause” or if they are discharged for “misconduct.” As of the date of this publication, thirty-five jurisdictions have passed laws that explicitly provide unemployment insurance to domestic violence victims in certain circumstances.

2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the historic passage of the watershed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)—the first comprehensive federal legislative package designed to end violence against women—which was signed into law in September, 1994 as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

Several states have proposed or enacted laws allowing employers to apply for restraining orders to prevent violence, harassment, or stalking of their employees. The laws vary in significant ways, such as whether the employer may seek a restraining order or injunction on behalf of itself rather than on behalf of the employee and whether an employee who is the target of violence must be consulted prior to the employer’s seeking a restraining order.

Many domestic violence victims report losing their housing due, at least in part, to the violence in their lives. Several jurisdictions have enacted laws specifically indicating that domestic violence victims are protected from housing discrimination.